Information-Centric Networking (ICN) refers to an approach to evolve the Internet infrastructure away from a host-centric paradigm based on perpetual connectivity and the end-to-end principle, to a network architecture in which the focal point is named information, content, data, or the like. In an ICN network paradigm, connectivity may well be intermittent such that end-host and in-network storage can be capitalized upon transparently. As named information in an ICN network and on storage devices can have exactly the same value, mobility and multi access are the norm. Data may become independent from location, application, storage, and means of transportation, enabling in-network caching and replication. The expected benefits can include improved efficiency, better scalability with respect to information and/or bandwidth demand, and better robustness in challenging communication scenarios.
Finding an incremental deployment solution for ICN into existing Internet Protocol (IP) networks is important for successful ICN introduction. On one hand, there have been proposals of overlay approaches for the deployment of ICN over IP such as Content Centric Networking (CCN) and Named Data Networking (NDN). One major disadvantage of such approaches is that they require the definition and standardization of a new packet format and of protocols to manage the correspondence between ICN faces and IP addresses in Forwarding Information Bases (FIBS) of ICN network elements. Thus, integration of ICN into IP networks presents a significant challenge to network developers and operators alike.